Wednesday, February 29, 2012

02/29/2012
Malacañang and its prosecution team
certainly know that they have failed to prove their charges against
Chief Justice Renato Corona, despite their claims that they already have
sufficient evidence with which to convict the Chief Magistrate.

But
they are probably convinced they will be able to convict Corona because
the prosecution team has the President of the Republic ready to assist
the congressman-prosecutors get a Senate court conviction of the Chief
Justice, for hundreds of millions of reasons that will be flowing again
when the time comes for a Senate vote.

How else could the
prosecutors have obtained the bank account numbers as well as the dollar
account copy of the Chief Justice, whether from the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP) or the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), unless they had
some very powerful from Malacañang to get the Corona account for them?.... MORE

European Banks have sucked up €529.5bn in cheap money from the ECB.
It’s the second auction by the European Central Bank in its Long Term
Refinancing Operation (LTRO).

­The money will help improve liquidity in the market. Stock markets
have reacted positively. Analysts also expect that over €100 billion of
the new LTRO are likely to be used to refinance current debt, while a
significant sum will be deposited at the ECB..... MORESource: RT.com

With the US labeling the Syrian President as a “war criminal” and
France calling for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court,
the West appears to be ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Syrian
government.

­On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a
Senate subcommittee on the State Department's budget. Pressured by
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) into answering whether she thinks Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, Clinton
said: “Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against
humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into
that category.”.... MORE

Tehran announced Tuesday that it is ready to receive payment for oil
supplies in gold as well as the national currencies of importer
countries. That’s according to Mahmoud Bahmani, Governor of the Central
Bank of Iran.
­In trade operations with foreign countries Iran does not limit
itself to dollars, and any state is free to use its own currency,
Bahmani is quoted as saying by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency. He also
added that if any client state wants to pay in gold, Iran would accept
it without hesitation..... MORE

Just when you thought the government couldn’t ruin the First
Amendment any further: The House of Representatives approved a bill on
Monday that outlaws protests in instances where some government
officials are nearby, whether or not you even know it.

The US House of Representatives voted 388-to-3 in favor of H.R. 347
late Monday, a bill which is being dubbed the Federal Restricted
Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. In the bill, Congress
officially makes it illegal to trespass on the grounds of the White
House, which, on the surface, seems not just harmless and necessary, but
somewhat shocking that such a rule isn’t already on the books. The
wording in the bill, however, extends to allow the government to go
after much more than tourists that transverse the wrought iron White
House fence..... MORE

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIOBulatlat.com
Environmental groups are pointing an accusing finger at irresponsible
mining operators for the worsening state of the Palawan river.

According to the Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE-Japan) and the
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), nickel
mining operations in Palawan Island is to blame for the contamination of
the Palawan river system. They said the river is already poisoned with
unsafe levels of carcinogenic or cancer-causing chemicals.

During a recent present conference in Quezon City, the groups
presented findings from an environmental field research study conducted
in a river located downstream near the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining
Corporation’s (RTNMC) mining operations and the Coral Bay Nickel
Processing Plant’s operation.

The study, which started in 2009, analyzed water samples and revealed
that present levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI), a toxic and
carcinogenic chemical, had already exceeded safe levels in the Togupon
River. It showed that present levels of Cr-VI contamination in water
samples from the Togupon River ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 milligrams per
liter (mg/L). This exceeds the Philippines’s Cr-VI effluent standard of
0.1 to 0.2mg/L.

In the meantime, the levels of Cr-VI contamination in water samples
taken from the Togupon River’s estuary ranged from 0.05 to
0.15mg/L—exceeding both the Philippine’s Cr-VI environmental standard
of 0.05 to 0.1mg/L and the Japanese environmental standard of 0.05mg/L
by one to three times over.

A researcher from FoE-Japan Hozue Hatae said the water contamination
originated either from upstream mining or refinery operations.

Togupon River runs through the area where the nickel mining
operations of RTNMC and the nickel processing facility of Coral Bay
Nickel Corp. (CBNC) are located. Both projects are financed and pursued
in partnership with Japanese multinational corporations and
institutions, such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and
the Nippon Export and Investment Insurance..... MORE

02/29/2012
Last week, we highlighted the findings
of the psychiatric evaluation of then patient 084 Benigno C. Aquino III
by noted psychologist and Ateneo de Manila University professor Father
Jaime Bulatao, S.J., which I downloaded from the blog goodmorningclass
@wordpress.com.

Conducted 33 years ago on Aug. 9, 1979 when Aquino
was just 19 years old that the first report revealed a lot about the
patient, i.e., over all profile and characteristics as well as his
“fears and ambitions” many of which remain valid up to this day. As a
result of its printing in our column I received a load of additional
information about the patient one of which is a psychiatric evaluation
conducted by the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Psychology
some 16 years ago when he was 36 years old.

My staff tried to get
a certified true copy of this report from the said department but as of
this writing I have been unable to secure one. Meantime, in the
interest of transparency and good conduct, I am excerpting parts of this
second evaluation report for our readers’ benefit. Here goes:

In
a surprise move, the prosecution panel, led by Rep. Niel Tupas Jr.,
announced before the Senate impeachment court that it is dropping five
Articles of Impeachment and has rested its case against Supreme Court
Chief Justice Renato Corona but reserved its right to present evidence
on the bank accounts of Corona in the event the temporary restraining
order (TRO) issued by the SC on the bank deposits of the CJ is lifted.

In
an open court manifestation, Tupas told the impeachment court that the
prosecution is resting its case, saying that the prosecutors have
already presented 25 witnesses and 397 pieces of evidence that would be
sufficient to convict the Chief Justice.

The surprise move taken
by Corona’s accusers was announced by Tupas after hearing from SC that
the high court was not waiving its judicial privilege on pending cases,
which means that the high court did not allow the participation of two
of its employees in the impeach proceedings..... MORE

By Fernan J. Angeles 02/29/2012
In a rare massive
assembly, nearly 1 million members of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo
(INC) religious group congregated at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal
Park yesterday that many described as a tacit show of force amid
perceived political tension with its once staunch ally President Aquino.

Yesterday’s
INC rally was significant since the religious group does not usually
call its members for an assembly other than during its anniversary
celebration in July.

Despite the religious group’s claim that the
rally had no political tinge, who were invited or not among political
personalities were the subject of public discussion. For instance, known
to have been invited to the assembly were all justices of the Supreme
Court, except for three justices who are known to be allies of President
Aquino, who himself did not receive an invitation from the INC..... MORE

Senate President Juan Ponce
Enrile dismissed any significance on Wynn’s charges on Naguiat’s
alleged receipt of $110,000 worth of accommodations and cash gifts,
including a $20,000 shopping and gaming money, during a recent visit to
Wynn Resorts in Macau in 2010 hosted by Japanese businessman Kazuo
Okada.

“Investigate? For what?” asked Enrile.

Whether the
allegations against Naguiat are true, the Pagcor official cannot be made
to face charges in the Philippines but in the country where the
supposed crime was committed, the Senate leader said..... MORE

02/29/2012
Two Army soldiers were killed while
several others were wounded during separate landmine attacks launched by
communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in the provinces of Compostela
Valley and Eastern Samar on Monday, reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo
said yesterday.

Army spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc said the
elements of the 25th Infantry Battalion (IB) were conducting routine
security patrols along Barangay San Vicente in Montevista, Compostela
Valley around 5:30 p.m. when they hit a landmine.

Cabunoc said the explosion was immediately followed by heavy gun fires coming from the NPA rebels, numbering about 15..... MORE

The Department
of National Defense (DND) yesterday maintained that the Department of
Energy’s (DoE) oil exploration programs in the disputed West Philippine
Sea has no security implication, stressing the projects are within the
country’s territorial waters.

DND spokesman Peter Paul Galvez,
however, stressed the need to expedite the ongoing capability upgrade of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to enhance the country’s
maritime security.

There is none (security implication). All those service contracts are within the jurisdiction of the Philippines, Galvez said..... MORE

02/29/2012
Despite the fact it is being proposed by
the Department of Finance (DoF), a senior official of the House ways
and means committee yesterday revealed that Malacanang remains
non-committal to the proposed unitary or single tax system for tobacco
and alcohol products.

Rep. Eric Singson Jr., ways and means
committee vice chairman, made the disclosure even as University of the
Philippines Prof. Leonor Briones, a prominent economist and social
scientist, reminded government that in pushing the approval of the bill,
it should not ignore the more urgent need to address the plight of
people who will suffer severe economic dislocation in case the bill is
approved.

We need revenue generating measures but we also need to
make sure that they will eat, Briones told congressmen during the
hearing of the ways and means committee yesterday..... MORE

02/29/2012
Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento
yesterday said with the rapid demise of huge filing cabinets and tons of
paper in data storage and document processing and management in
government agencies due to digitization and full computerization of
government database and document processing systems, corruption and
“gunder-the-table” negotiations now appear to be also shifting to
government contracts involving multimillion-peso Information Technology
(IT) projects.

“What makes corruption in IT projects nearly
undetectable is the fact that with the exception of those employed as IT
professionals, the technical intricacies in IT such as software and
hardware specifications, are almost alien to most non-IT people, and
that includes heads of the country’s government agencies that rely
heavily on IT-driven services,” Sarmiento said..... MORE

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

02/28/2012
The hearing yesterday of the Senate
committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies seeking to
establish the source of the possible leaked Philippine Savings Bank
(PSBank) documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona revealed the
disturbing fact that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is in the
habit of peeking into bank accounts of certain citizens even without
court orders.

For PSBank alone, it was established that 112 bank
accounts were looked into by the BSP, not the Anti-Money Laundering
Council (AMLC) that the law authorizes to probe into suspicious bank
accounts, but a so-called BSP anti-money laundering specialist that
appears to have been done to skirt the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA)
that required the AMLC to secure a court order or the authorization from
the account holder before a bank account can be opened.

The BSP undertakes the surreptitious examinations of accounts in the
guise of an audit and majority of the targets are so-called politically
exposed personalities (PEP) who are generally government officials and
politicians or institutions that have a certain association with a PEP..... MORE

Syria’s Interior Minister has announced that 89 per cent of those who
took part in the referendum have voted in favor of a new constitution.
The new law puts an end to five decades of one-party rule among other
reforms put forward by President Assad.

Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar announced the results of the referendum at a press conference on Monday.­

According
to the minister, out of 14,580,000 Syrians eligible to vote some
8,376,000, or about 57 per cent, actually came to the polling stations
and voted, RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from Damascus..... MORE

The Occupy London camp outside St Paul's Cathedral was destroyed
early Tuesday. Hundreds of officers converged on the camp just before
midnight local time and began to dismantle what had been home to around
70 activists.

­Bailiffs in high-visibility jackets dragged tents and their contents
to garbage trucks and dumpsters where they were crushed. Police in riot
gear formed cordons to keep protesters and their supporters out of the
camp. Activists say the police were met with peaceful resistance.
However, media reports say around 20 protesters have been detained.

Several
dozen protesters have been camped on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral
since October last year. It was one of the longest-surviving encampments
inspired by the New York “Occupy Wall Street” movement against
corporate greed..... MORE

Or, what is
generally referred to by cinephiles, worldwide, as the night of the
Oscars. The award is officially “the Academy Award of Merit,” but as
legend has it, the trophy got the affectionate nickname in 1931, when
one of the Academy’s secretaries exclaimed it looked liked her “Uncle
Oscar.”

There’s another version that says it was film actor Bette
Davis who looked like it after her first husband, the band leader Harmon
Oscar Nelson, but what’s what, no one will never know, kasi sa totoo
lang, it no longer matters, basta Oscar na siya, tapos..... MORE

02/28/2012
As oxymoronic as this might strike the
ear, there are probably honest property developers in Metro Manila, but
someone of my acquaintance — let’s call him The Professor — reckons
there are several of the other kind as well. Along with fellow
unit-owners in the condo tower where he resides, he has complaints about
the developer and its contractor, and arising from this he, in his
words, “without even trying have been made aware of five other cases
where there have been serious complaints/legal actions by residents who
did not get what they thought they signed up for.”

Those
complaints range from “what appear to be shady or questionable practices
(misrepresentation) in selling to customers, to illegal practices and
the ignoring of the law regarding building plans, environmental issues,
worker health and safety, lack of transparency and accountability, etc.”

In
his own case the problems started when the developer announced that a
third tower would arise on a site where residents were under the
impression when they bought their units that there would be only two. A
group of them put together a campaign, some members of which were then
hit with a libel suit brought by the developer which, in due course, was
thrown out by the prosecutor..... MORE

02/28/2012
Would that everything were all right
with the Philippine Government, with Philippine democracy, with the
people of the Philippines! Would that the Legislature enact needed and
relevant laws, the Executive ably and satisfactorily implement them, and
the Judiciary accordingly act on its violations! Would that there be
equality and separation of power — in truth and in fact — among the said
three branches of government! Would that the Philippine Constitution be
not merely a nice paper to read but really a basic document for the
government to abide with and for the people to live by! Then, the
Philippines would be a blessed country and the Filipinos a fortunate
people — and thus probably become the big envy of the world.

But
something is wrong — here and now! The Philippine government is not of
the people, by the people and for the people — but of the politicians,
by the politicians and for the politicians. The Legislative Department
rests primarily immersed in but partisan politics and pursuant political
alliances. The Executive Department remains disabled and incompetent in
its mandatory agenda for the common good and public welfare of the
citizenry. The Supreme Court is anything but supreme in the
interpretation and application of the laws of the land. To say that such
an adverse composite phenomenon spells social disaster for the country
and misery for people is one big understatement..... MORE

Ignoring
China’s protest, the Department of Energy (DoE) will continue to offer
15 maritime offshore territories for oil exploration, including two
areas near the province of Palawan being claimed by Beijing.

Energy
Secretary Jose Almendras said the Philippine government hopes to award
the service contracts to winning bidders next month amid opposition from
China, which asserted that two of the 15 areas are part of the disputed
South China Sea.

“We offered these service contracts which the
Republic of the Philippines believes are within its territorial claims,”
Almendras told reporters at the sidelines of the 1st European
Union-Philippines Energy Meeting.

China maintains “indisput-able sovereignty” and historical rights over the vast sea that straddles one of the world’s vital.... MORE

Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison
yesterday denied that he is already in the country after striking an
agreement with President Aquino, blaming supporters of detained former
President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo for spreading the false
information.

In a rare broadcast interview over dzRH, Sison stressed that he is still in Utrecht, The Netherlands where he is in self-exile.

“I am here in Utrecht, and only yesterday (Sunday in Manila) I was a public speaker in Amsterdam,” Sison said.

Earlier
reports circulated about the homecoming of the exiled CPP founding
leader. There were also reports that Sison was offered a Cabinet
position by the Aquino administration..... MORE

The House
prosecution panel remains nowhere near substantiating any of their eight
allegations on impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona as they again
suffered a severe blow yesterday with Senate judges issuing a barrage of
lectures and reprimands on their efforts to pit the impeachment court
with the Supreme Court (SC) through their pleadings that would impinge
on the independence of branches of government.

The court also
ruled against seeking SC Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno’s
testimony personally or in writing that was topped off by another
reprimand from presiding justice Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile
after they appealed for a clarification on the court’s rejection of a
witness.

The move of the Senate impeachment court to deny Sereno’s
testimony was due to the decision of Senator-Judge Antonio Trillanes IV
to “withdraw” an earlier motion to send her written questions to shed
light on the

prosecution’s alleged
partiality of Corona to former President Gloria Arroyo in the issuance
of a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have allowed Arroyo
and her spouse, Jose Miguel Arroyo, to leave the country last November..... MORE

02/28/2012
The House committee on good government
yesterday effectively banned contro-versial American casino magnate
Steve Wynn from doing business in the Philippines after the panel
declared him persona non grata for allegedly bes-mirching Philippine
Amuse-ment and Gaming Corp. head

Cristino Naguiat and the country regarding his bribery accusation against the Pagcor chairman.

This
even as the panel lauded Wynn’s corporate rival, Japanese gambling
mogul Kazuo Okada, for his continued faith in the prospects of the
Philippines as the next gaming and entertainment center in Asia.

At
the committee hearing, panel chairman Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing
virtually cleared Naguiat of any wrongdoing when he was hosted by Okada
during a visit to Wynn Resorts..... MORE

The Department of
Labor and Employment said that Taiwan government has extended the
cumulative stay of foreign workers in their country from nine to 12
years, which would benefit Filipino caretakers, domestic workers,
factory workers, nursing aides and fishermen.

Labor Secretary
Rosalinda Baldoz said that Taiwan ’s parliament has amended the
provision of the island’s Employment Service Act extending the previous
cumulative stay limit of nine years for foreign workers, including
Filipinos from nine to 12 years.

OFWs in Taiwan number about
90,000, of which around 15 percent are caregivers and domestic helpers,
while the remaining are factory workers..... MORE

By Arlie O. Calalo 02/28/2012
Malabon City Vice Mayor LenLen Oreta has formally taken over the post of his ailing uncle Mayor Canuto “Tito” Oreta.

In
a huddle with some members of the media, the younger Oreta, who is
first cousin of President Aquino whose late father was the elder brother
of ex-Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, the vice mayor’s mother, confirmed that
he has assumed the city’s top post.

Asked on the health condition
of his uncle, who has been undoubtedly well-loved by most residents and
even some political rivals for his kindness and being too caring to
them since the time he was Barangay Maysilo chairman and barangay league
president for years, Acting Mayor Lenlen said he was slowly recovering.

“He is on leave and he is recovering but he needs complete rest,” said the younger Oreta on his ailing uncle..... MORE

Gatdula filed the petition in connection with
allegations that he was behind the ambush on Esmeralda’s convoy last
week which De Lima and Esmeralda stated that it was linked to the case
of a Japanese national who claimed that Gatdula’s men extorted money
from her in exchange for her liberty..... MORE

Monday, February 27, 2012

02/27/2012
Much as this space would like to tackle
the myriad other issues bedeviling the nation, we are constantly dragged
back to the electricity or power plunder that continues to ravage this
country to this day. We have repeatedly highlighted the anomalous fact
of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. and
National Power Corp. (Napocor) debt staying at $18 billion despite over
10 years and almost 90 percent of the state’s power assets being “sold
off” to the private sector since the start of the power privatization
program under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001. It
is as if money from the sales vanished into thin air.

Last week,
one clue was given by the state agency that manages these assets. When
its top honcho, Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., said, “Psalm is yet to collect
$9.99 billion in additional proceeds from the transfer of IPP
(independent power producer) contracts to private administrators as of
September 2011,” what it says is that taxpayers and power consumers are
to be charged what the IPPs should have paid for but didn’t.

As
for the other half of that $18-billion debt, Ledesma claims it as “$8.44
billion in debts assumed from” Napocor. Now wasn’t the privatization
of Napocor assets supposed to cover all these? Where did proceeds from
the sale of diesel-fired to hydroelectric and geothermal power plants
go? How about the latest $4-billion privatization of the TransCo (the
erstwhile state-owned transmission grid) to the private sector operator,
National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), that has also not been
collected after two years?

In June 2011, it was reported that
“government may use the receivables from the concession contract of the
NGCP” on the pretext that “selling the receivables ahead of the
scheduled payment of NGCP may help in the efforts to reduce the
universal charge (UC).”

Wait a minute: TransCo was earning P18
billion a year when it was sold off; now it’s not even paid while the
NGCP is already earning; hence, we now even have to rediscount the
receivables? What name can you give to such a deal if not “historic
swindle?”

I am just aghast at the magnitude of this scam and the
impunity with which it continues to be perpetrated before the eyes of 95
million Filipinos. With the silent blessings of four Edsa
administrations (Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Gloria Arroyo, and now
PeNoy), this national swindle rages on because of the silent consent of
the entire Senate and Lower House of Congress, in collaboration with all
government electricity agencies — from Psalm to the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC).

What is the power behind these power plunderers
that all government institutions are cowed into compliance, even as we
ordinary folk see their dictates as an unconscionable swindle?

What
are we, the people of this nation, to do when our supposed
representatives in government stand idly by as our pockets are looted
and our economy is systematically laid to waste by the garrote of high
electricity prices and a progressively failing economy over years and
years of power plunder?

The latest statements of the Psalm chief
only reveal how helpless government authorities really are in the face
of the IPPs and power plunderer-privateers. Instead of pressing for
these companies to pay up what are clearly debt obligations to
government and the Filipino people, our supposed leaders continue to
find ways on how to unburden these companies — to the detriment of the
public.

With deceitful intent, Psalm has been trying to pass on
these debts of the privateers via piecemeal transfers: P140 billion to
be paid from the national budget and assumed by taxpayers; P0.39 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) as UC, shouldered again by power consumers over 20
years; with another bulk to be charged to Malampaya’s earnings; and only
God knows what else.

If they were to pass these on as one lump
sum to each electricity bill, it would amount to an additional P5/kWh
over 20 years, which means up to 35 percent of added cost to each power
consumer, who will fork out over P100 billion in power payments
annually.

Congress has not approved such piecemeal schemes just
yet because the ploy is too blatantly oppressive and dishonest; but it
has done nothing to resolve the power plunder for the nation’s welfare
either.

Malacañang, for its part, has only played deaf and dumb to
the issue and the pleas of all sectors of society. At the rate the
situation is developing, it is apparent that government has been made
inutile, with the implication being that, at some point, all these debts
will finally be transferred to us when we are at our most vulnerable —
perhaps under another “revolutionary government” dictatorship a la Cory —
so that the IPPs and power plunderers will never be made to pay the $18
billion anymore, thanks to Edsa I, Edsa II, and PeNoy.

Meanwhile,
the power crisis in Mindanao is growing unabated despite an
overabundance of capacity from hydroelectric dams that were deliberately
sabotaged. The NGCP now projects an average shortfall there of 179
megawatts (MW) next month and a high 345 MW in April, even when just one
facility, the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex, already has 727 MW of
installed capacity — this despite its production of only 467 MW today
due to seemingly deliberate maintenance deficiencies.

Two Napocor
power barges, 117 and 118, privatized to Aboitiz’ Therma Marine Corp.
can, as well, generate 200 MW; but the rates are so high that the 33
Mindanao electric cooperatives refuse to buy from them.

Four power
barges of Psalm, 101 to 104, lying idle in Luzon are being asked by the
Mindanao Business Council to be deployed there to provide emergency
power. But this cannot be done allegedly because it would violate the
Epira’s ban on government from participating in power generation, even
if it is just to help the people. How twisted, indeed, have our
country’s laws become? Yet some twisted minds still have reason to
celebrate Edsa?

02/27/2012
United States Supreme Court’s Associate
Justice Samuel Chase’s impeachment trial appears to be eerily similar to
that of the impeachment of Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona’s.

It
was also a US president, Thomas Jefferson, who disliked Chase and his
Federalist views, and wanted him and other Federalist justices, among
whom was the US Chief Justice Marshall, impeached, fearing that the high
court would become too powerful.

Jefferson directly encouraged
Congress, which was then dominated by Republicans, to impeach Chase. And
he was so impeached, no differently from Noynoy’s direct intervention
of the impeachment of Corona.... MORE

“Anyone but Iran,” is what the United States is telling India, as
America attempts to persuade the country to go elsewhere for its oil
needs.

There are currently no sanctions that would restrict India from
continuing to do business with Iran, but any disruption in their
relationship could cause the Iranian economy to be impacted
significantly. Traditionally, India purchases around 12 percent of all
its crude from Iran, a transaction that is worth around $12 billion each
year. As the US continues to warn Iran to abandon its nuclear program
or face the consequences, America is getting creative in finding ways to
get them to crack.

Sources close to the matter tell Bloomberg
that the US is considering getting involved in India’s oil trade and
could offer assistance in broker deals with outside suppliers. At least
three sources with inside knowledge have discussed the deal with the
news outlet, but did so under condition of anonymity as details of the
matter are intended to be kept confidential..... MORE

Every time you use your smartphone app your personal information –
emails, phone numbers and even photos – is sent off to dozens of
Internet companies all over the world. And you are the one who is
allowing them access.

­Most users are aware that Internet companies like to collect
information on their clients so that they can target their adverts
better. But the sheer extent of their spying is shocking. And it’s all
buried in the small print of the license agreement few bother to read.
Often the information collected has nothing to do with function of the
application.

Despite being a social network, Facebook reads your
text messages, while photo application Flickr raids your contact book.
In turn, video portal Youtube can access and download all of the users’
photographs..... MORE

We continue to say, ‘yes’ to a comprehensive and pro-poor
reproductive health bill and ‘no’ to population control.” – GWP Rep.
Emmi de Jesus
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has
charged the Gabriela Women’s Party of allegedly admitting that that the
Reproductive Health (RH) bill pending in both chambers of Congress, is “
neither pro-poor nor pro-women.”

In a report posted on the official CBCP website
last February 20, the CBCP said that Gabriela has made the admission in
a note on its own Facebook page. It referred to a note made by Gabriela
declaring that “the RH bill cannot be genuinely pro-poor and pro-women
for as long as it espouses population control, which blames poverty on
women’s bodies, fertility and population.”

The somewhat misleading news story has prompted Gabriela Rep. Emmi
de Jesus to call on the CBCP to “stop bearing false witness against
women’s health.”

“GWP believes that House Bill 4244, popularly known as the RH Bill,
has made positive strides for women. Gabriela Women’s Party has
successfully included in the consolidated bill substantive provisions
from its own bill, HB 3387. Among these are reproductive health care
programs and services throughout one’s life cycle, services to address
breast and reproductive tract cancers, and protection against chemicals
injurious to working women,” De Jesus said.

According to de Jesus, her group also lobbies for prenatal leaves for
women workers and pro-bono services especially for low-income and
indigent pregnant women, as stated in the RH bill.

“On top of this, population or demographic targets were thrown out of
the bill, and desired family size was made neither mandatory nor
compulsory,” she said. “We need to remind CBCP not to distort the truth
in its campaign against the RH bill. While it is true that GWP has
consistently opposed the population control agenda, it does not mean
that the GWP stands beside the Catholic Church hierarchy in blocking the
passage of a legislation that calls for the promotion of women’s right
to health.”.... MORE

02/27/2012
P-Noy has declared that his close friend
and classmate Cristino “Bong” Naguiat is innocent until proven guilty.
Which is how it should be. Not the other way around. That is, nobody can
and should be declared guilty until and after he has been apprised of
his crime, has confronted his accuser and the witnesses against him,
afforded all the opportunity to prove his innocence and judged in the
proper court with all the attendant protection of the law. That is how
due process and the rule of law should be applied in a democracy.

“There
is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty,” P-Noy intoned in
defense of Naguiat, “so in this particular instance, we should afford
him also the benefit of hearing him out before we make any judgment.” OK
so far. Then came the breaker. “This constitutional presumption,” P-Noy
continued, “is also being applied to Chief Justice Renato Corona.”
What?! How?!.... MORE

02/27/2012
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, the
economic lieutenant of President Aquino, appears among the public
officials who have not been properly disclosing his true financial worth
based on various documents obtained by the Tribune, including his
statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALn).

During his
confirmation hearings last year with the bicameral Commission on
Appointments (CA), the discrepancy between Purisima’s declared assets
and income from 2006 to 2009 was already raised.

The CA, in a
report then, said Purisima declared an income of P22 million in his tax
return against a P35 million networth in his SALn..... MORE

02/27/2012
The failure of the Aquino government to
address the social problems plaguing the country at present was “stale
and uninspiring,” said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
yesterday as the country celebrated the 26th anniversary of the Edsa
People Power I.

The CPP, in a statement, said that the Aquino
administration failed to address the grave social problems like
landlessness, unemployment, poverty, hunger, social injustice and
worsening inequities.

“The Aquino regime is now responsible for
the perpetuation of the acute social ills that plague the Filipino
people,” the CPP said.”Aquino has sought to draw from the spirit of the
Edsa people uprising to generate support to his regime but miserably
fails to inspire the toiling masses whose grave social conditions
continue to deteriorate under his anti-people and pro-imperialist
policies.”.... MORE

The House ethics
committee yesterday rejected the move to cite two lawmakers in
connection with their alleged participation in the disclosure of the
questionable bank accounts of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

According
Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado, chairman of the House committee on ethics,
he will start with the investigation for possible violation of the Bank
Secrecy Law only after the impeachment case of the Chief Justice has
been resolved.

The House minority has asked Aumentado to have
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a public prosecutor, and Quezon
City Rep. Jorge “Bolet” Banal, a member of the prosecution’s
secretariat, investigated for alleged involvement in the disclosure of
Corona’s bank accounts..... MORE

President
Aquino, who has been boasting of his administrations sensitivity on the
need to fast-track socialized housing program for the poor, is now made
to choose whether to render some 50,000 families homeless or to let them
stay in a 270-hectare reclaimed parcel at the border of Pasig City and
Taytay town in Rizal.

Malacaang doesnt appear keen on getting them
out of the danger zone despite stern warnings based on recent findings
manifesting the 270-hectare lakeshore community in Barangay Sta. Ana in
Taytay, Rizal, isnt fit for human settlement.

In a statement
issued to Palace reporters, the Presidential Communications Operations
Office (PCOO) said that the government has already put in place remedial
measures designed to minimize liquefaction of an area that is now
referred to as Lupang Arenda..... MORE

With
the government aggressively trying to cut down on unnecessary
expenditures and enjoining private enterprise to invest in so-called
private public partnership (PPP) programs , the intention of the
Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) to procure
P7.9-billion hardware and software to construct the IT infrastructure
of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation
Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) contradicts the very essence
of the administration’s advocacy of a true and ideal PPP.

Stradcom
spokesman Margaux Salcedo made the observation as she reiterated the
call urging DoTC officials to study and reconsider first the plans of
Stradcom for a renewed contract before total and outright rejection of
the IT firms proposal which, according to Salcedo, will put to waste
almost P8 billion of taxpayers’ money for a project which the government
could get for free..... MORE

02/27/2012
While President Aquino has claimed that
pollution level in Metro Manila significantly went down when he assumed
office, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said otherwise, hinting that the
air we breathe today is far more risky.

Portraying a role of an
environmental expert, deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte at a
radio press briefing insisted the conflicting claims are similarly
factual and consistent even as she cited other factors that should be
considered, one of which is the onset of the summer season.

Valte,
who is neither an environmental specialist nor a physician, had a
lengthy technical explanation designed to reconcile what appears to be
totally opposing claims made by Ona and the President at the Pulong
Bayan ng Pangulo in La Consolacion College in Manila..... MORE

Senate
Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III has sought the amendment to the
Anti-Hazing law by imposing the penalty of life imprisonment on all
those found to be participants in a fraternity-related violence.

The
upper chamber leader is proposing to have Republic Act 8049 an absolute
imposition of reclusion perpetua or life term, on those who will be
found guilty of the crime, whatever the condition of the victim.

The present law provides for a graduated level of penalty, depending on the harm that the victim suffered..... MORE

Sunday, February 26, 2012

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIOBulatlat.com
MANILA — The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) is outraged
against what it described as the United State government’s attempts to
blackmail the Philippines.

The US is standing against the petition of the Philippines to the
World Trade Organization for the extension of the Quantitative
Restriction (QR) on rice in retaliation over the issuance of Department
of Agriculture (DA) AO 22, which provides technical requirements, such
as proper labeling, in the packaging of frozen meat.

“The US’ opposition on our bid to extend the QRs on rice betrays US
arrogance and underscores the need for the Philippines to withdraw from
the WTO,” said KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos.

According to recent reports, the United States is opposing the
Philippines’ petition for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to stop the
continued entry of imported rice into the country. This was revealed to
the media by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala..... MORE

02/26/2012
It is almost certain that Supreme Court
(SC) Associate Justice Lourdes Sereno will either face the impeachment
court to testify, or submit herself to the “interrogatory” as proposed
by a junior member of the Senate court and so moved by his senior
comrade in arms.

What appears to have puzzled presiding officer,
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, was the fact that a junior senator,
Sonny Trillanes, who is not even a lawyer, proposed the interrogatory
for Sereno. The interrogatory is said to be an alternative mode of
gathering evidence through a written list of questions sent by the court
to a witness.

It is also curious that another non-lawyer, Sen.
Panfilo Lacson, moved for such an alternative mode, although the
explanation of both Trillanes and Lacson was that since Justice Chief
Leila de Lima testified on hearsay evidence basis, needed was Sereno to
testify about what she had written in her dissenting opinion, where what
she bared were allegedly “irregularities” in the issuance of the
temporary restraining order (TRO) during a closed-door en banc session
of the justices, which is definitely a violation of the rules covering
judicial executive sessions..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

War-torn Syria is holding an unprecedented referendum on a new draft
constitution on Sunday that would put an end to five decades of
single-party rule. But the opposition is calling on the population to
boycott the vote.

­Millions of Syrians are expected to vote on their country’s new
constitution. Posters and banners calling on people to come and vote are
everywhere in the capital and all around the country, RT’s Maria
Finoshina reports from Damascus. For the first time in the country’s
history the Interior Ministry is urging people to come and vote without
actually telling them how they should vote, she says..... MORE

The trial of NGO workers suspected of illegally using foreign funding
and fomenting unrest starts in Cairo on Sunday. Washington is pushing
Egypt to drop the charges and release the activists, 16 of whom are
American citizens.

Thirteen Egyptian defendants were in the courtroom filled with
hundreds of lawyers and reporters. None of the accused Americans were in
court for the opening session..... MORESource: RT.com

Pentagon wants $100 million extra to be prepared for a war with Iran.
The money, requested from the Congress, is to beef up US military
presence in the Persian Gulf and rapidly upgrade weapons to more
effectively combat Iranian armed forces.

US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Gulf
region, wants them prepared to defeat the Iranian fleet and shore
artillery. They also want additional drone capabilities and mine swiping
equipment to clear the Strait of Hormuz, should Iran act to set mines
there as it threatened to, reports The Wall Street Journal..... MORE

Studies show that deaths from hepatitis C (HCV) infection among US
adults outnumber AIDS fatalities. And while greedy pharmaceutical giants
advertise new drugs that cost a fortune, Oxford dons claim success in
developing anti-HCV vaccine.

­Hepatitis C virus, or HCV, causes serious liver infection which can
eventually lead to fatal liver scarring (cirrhosis) and liver cancer. It
usually passes with infected blood, and therefore, most people contract
the disease in medical facilities through improperly sterilized medical
instruments or while injecting drugs with shared needles..... MORE

02/26/2012
\"Danger” means the reality of a threat
or a hazard, a pending disaster or something ominous and sinister. The
danger is said to be “clear” when it is already distinct and felt, when
it is somehow now simply expected but probably even in fact experienced.
Ultimately, the same danger is qualified as “imminent” when it is
perceived as probably forthcoming and wherefore already impending.
Though sad to take note of and think about, it is however good to face
the truth that there is a clear and imminent danger poised against the
People of the Philippines — taking into realistic account the composite
significance and implications of but the three following signal
political plus economic plus social fast building up liabilities in the
country.

First and foremost, there is the gradually most
noticeable propensity — akin to an obsession — of the present
administration to continuously flex its muscles in demonstration of its
defining resolve to acquire progressively more power and the pursuant
exercise of gradually greater influence in the exercise of governance.
The key sign of this fearful phenomenon is the now ongoing impeachment
process precisely lodged by Malacañang. In other words, the
Commander-in-Chief is manifestly flexing his muscles not only in making
the Legislative function according to plan but also to eventually run
the Judiciary as well. This is why there are already some people who go
to the extent of saying that there are already signs of a “dictatorial”
behavioral pattern on the part of the Chief Executive..... MORE

02/26/2012
The late Ferdinand Marcos was booted out
of power by a military coup d’etat. President Joseph Estrada was
illegally overthrown by a combined elitist force of businessmen and the
so called civil society and some elements of the Church.

If
guesses could be rated accurate then some guesswork could rank in higher
percentages than the others. Well, rank this wild guess: That the
present resident of Malacañang and his cohorts would have to go by way
of a “religious mutiny.” All “guesses” are pointing to one direction on
the scheduled “bible exposition” of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) on
Tuesday at the Quirino Grandstand, where some two million religious warm
bodies would possibly crowd to the tills the 50 hectare Rizal Park.

There
are many religious groups who have claimed millions of members
littering every square kilometer of Manila’s prime park, but were short
in estimates. However, INC is known to deliver well on its promise,
especially in mobilizing its members. They have the crowd and loyalty on
their beck and call. We have witnessed this during the National Day of
Prayer of Nov. 12, 2000 during the incumbency of President Estrada where
over 1.5 million attended, mostly from the INC, El Shaddai and some
other Christian religious groups including Muslims and Buddhists..... MORE

A sparse
crowd, failed promises and President Aquino’s uninspiring speech stood
out yesterday in the 26th anniversary of the People Power revolt of 1986
where Aquino spoke more of his crusade to oust Chief Justice Renato
Corona than what he intended to accomplish in terms of improving the
Filipinos’ lives.

Amid the unabated oil price hike, power rate
increases along with the prices of other basic commodities and the
rising unemployment, nothing is there to celebrate in the 26th
Anniversary of the first Edsa People Power, a militant solon said
yesterday.

“Nothing is celebratory about the 26th Edsa People
Power anniversary. Nothing is celebratory about incessant oil price
hike, power rate hike and increases in the price of basic good and
commodities, and lack of basic social services for the marginalized
Filipinos,” Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus said..... MORE

02/26/2012
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
has reminded Filipinos who are seeking employment in Egypt to obtain a
working visa/permit prior to departure for that country.

“The
public is advised not to believe recruiters who are offering tourist
visas which could allegedly be converted to a work permit upon arrival
in Egypt. Irregular workers, or those who do not have proper documents,
do not have the same rights as regular ones and could become victims of
abuse or unlawful practices. Penalties can also be imposed by the
Egyptian government on all violators,” the DFA said.

It added the
public is encouraged to apply through agencies accredited by the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and to abide by all
the rules and regulations of both the Philippines and the host country..... MORE

02/26/2012
The Hapinoy program has launched another
community-oriented project in partnership with Xavier University of
Cagayan de Oro City that benefited more than 500 families in the Xavier
Ecoville village in the city who were among the victims of tropical
storm “Sendong.” The project involved the distribution of eco-friendly
solar lamps that lighted up the streets in the community.

Ecoville
is a resettlement project for victims of Sendong which killed over a
thousand people and destroyed billions of pesos worth of crops and
property.

The lamps were provided by the Center for Agriculture
and Rural Development-Business Development Services (CARD-BDS) and are
powered by charging the lamp batteries with solar energy during the day..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

02/26/2012
The Quezon City government has vowed to
impose stronger punitive actions on owners of industries and commercial
establishments whose business operations are potential sources of water
pollution.

This was declared by Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista as
he emerged from a conference hosted by the city’s Environmental
Protection and Waste Management Department (EPWMD) held at the
Philippine Social Science Center on Proper Wastewater Disposal for a
Healthy Business Environment.

He called on the business sector in
the city to comply with the provisions of Republic Act 9275 or the Clean
Water Act, particularly the requirement that establishment owners must
install waste treatment facilities..... MORE

By Pat C. Santos and Arlie Calalo 02/26/2012
A 10-year-old boy died while 20 others were injured in fires that hit Tondo, Manila and Navotas City yesterday.

Fire
authorities identified the boy who perished in the Tondo fire as John
Stephen Lesigue whose body was found inside a comfort room and the
injured as John Kennedy, John’s twin brother, and his elder brother
Fredlyn, 12, who both sustained serious injuries during the incident.

Investigation showed the fire started at 4 a.m. from a residential house on Herbosa Street in Tondo..... MORE

Saturday, February 25, 2012

As I continued my pencil pushing on the
power plunder that has raged on for over 10 years — now with a
particularly renewed ferocity in Mindanao, I realize that the P80,000
per electricity consumer I computed in my last column speaks only half
the story.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management
(Psalm) Corp. debt today stands at $18 billion (P800 billion), despite
10 years of privatizing National Power Corp. (Napocor) assets by almost
90 percent. As it is, authorities are now in a quandary as to how to
charge this to us consumers without blowing the lid on the swindle of
the century. Their latest attempt, therefore, is to charge 20 percent of
this to government, which, of course, means the taxpayers. As for the
rest, well, the shysters at Psalm are still working with Congress on
passing this on to consumers via a so-called Universal Charge. In short,
they will try to make 10 million electricity customers pay for all this
by hook or by crook. But that’s not all.

The other half of the
story involves the oligarchs who got these $18 billion worth of Napocor
assets that we as taxpayers and power consumers paid for since the state
power company was established by government in 1936.

What
Filipino power consumers have really been plundered of is not only
P80,000 per paying customer and, to a lesser extent, per individual
taxpayer (as even the consumption of candies, diapers etc. have VAT
included). Because we are being made to pay for P80,000 through the
various surreptitious means that Psalm is devising with the corrupt
bureaucracy, including Malacañang, the Upper and Lower Houses of
Congress, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Judiciary, the
oligarchs on the other hand are already enjoying cash flow benefits and
profits from collections on power generating assets they have taken
over.

Since the private conglomerates now “owning” our erstwhile
public assets took them over on credit, based on sovereign guarantees
and guaranteed payments from consumers, we are also actually paying for
those assets now in list of acquisitions. This is a classic lagaring
Hapon on us as each consumer is actually going to pay double the amount
at P180,000!

Some of these asset transfers — such as the national
transmission grid that used to be under the National Transmission Corp.
but now in the hands of the private National Grid Corp. of the
Philippines, which was supposed to have brought in $4 billion for Psalm
and the government — have not been paid since their turnover in January
2009.

In fact, we, the taxpayers, have had to foot the bill for
Psalm’s operations to the tune of P75 billion to P85 billion each year
since the state agency has had to borrow for its operational funds, with
the approval of Congress.

You see, we are being cooked in our own fat while the oligarchs are fattening themselves, also on our monthly payments.

And
while we are computing and discovering the mounting sums which the
oligarchs and their corrupt political agents in government are
plundering from the nation’s electricity consumers and taxpayers,
Mindanaoans are at present beginning to feel the full force of the power
swindle in their area.

“Power curtailment” of four to eight-hour
brownouts regularly hit parts of Mindanao today. I have been receiving
reports from our colleagues there, particularly Mr. Jojo Borja, early
this week that Mindanaoans are now up in arms over the situation since
the rains have not stopped and the hydro-electric plants that include
the vast Agus-Pulangui complex should already be supplying enough power.

At
the same time, Mindanaoans are well aware that there are four emergency
power barges with Napocor that can immediately be deployed to supply
emergency power there. Yet, the Department of Energy and Psalm refuse to
do so, as both await the privatization of these barges by March.

Confirming
Borja’s report was the appeal aired last Sunday by the Mindanao
business community and the island’s 33 electric cooperatives (led by the
Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives) to look into the
region’s power crisis. They say that it is not only due to the reduced
capacity of the hydro-electric plants which have not been maintained
properly but also because of the “derating” or control of other power
plants in Mindanao.

The two power barges privatized to the
Aboitizes in 2009 are not generating power because the electric
cooperatives cannot buy from them through NGCP as the grid’s power rates
are not affordable to Mindanao consumers. The ECs, thus, bear the brunt
of power consumers’ anger when they pass on the generation charge from
Therma Marine Corp., also of the Aboitiz Group.

Meanwhile, Malacañang, the Senate, and the House merely display their grandstanding antics in the Corona impeachment hearings.

When
Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. came out with a bill against what he
calls the negative typecasting of Philippine solons as crooks, I
remembered asking: What was the vote of his fellow congressmen on the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act? Weren’t they reported to have each
received a P500,000-payola for the onerous law’s approval, as exposed by
Rep. Rene Magtubo in 2001? How about the P10-million National
Electrification Administration projects per congressman ordered released
by Gloria Arroyo to those who voted favorably for the measure?

Another
one of Gonzales’ harebrained colleagues, sadly, seconded him, saying
there are many “crabs” among the public dragging the reputation of
congressmen down out of envy. These legislators should instead look at
themselves and see that they are the ones dragging the entire country
down with their constant scrambling for huge scraps of pork and other
large morsels from the national budget for themselves. We challenge
these whining solons to a face-to-face debate anytime, anywhere on who
the crabs really are — the public or their ilk — so that they can be put
in their proper places.